We meet again

"It's to?" impatiently Éclair tapped with her feet for the 10th time Eric tried to speak up but couldn't. Fuck! Wasn't this too unfair? He couldn't even tell them about his mission?

So, they couldn't help? What was this bullshit? Quickly, Eric started writing in the air but –

Again found himself unable to do so! He tried telepathy but was blocked. One method after another but it was all useless. Finally, he gave up and said, "I don't know how but it doesn't allow me to tell you anything about it. An invisible force stops me always."

"Seriously, this is bad," Éclair growled, "We can't help you?"

"No, I think it's possible, you just can't know what my mission is. You can follow me and act on impulse," Eric had a hard time explaining it because he had to be careful with his words or else he would get stopped again. He wanted to say 'you can follow me and help me take care of people' but obviously was unable to do so.

"On impulse?"

"Yes," Eric helplessly nodded, "Just act what you think is best in the situation and follow my lead by watching what I'm doing."

This much should be enough for them, right?

"The time limit is-" Dammit, he couldn't even tell them this much, huh?

"Anyway, let's get going," in the end, Eric could only rely on the wit and intuition of his allies.

Finishing some mental preparation, they instantly headed out. It was only around 8pm but it was already pitch-black. Not even lights from the houses were on. They could barely see their hands. What was going on? Was this part of the checkpoint? Did they do it? Were the citizens fine with it or was it only visible to the contenders?

Eric quickly turned to his allies behind him and asked, "You guys noticed it too?"

Luckily, they nodded, "Yes, it's eerily quiet and dark. Should we use light?"

"No, it's best to keep ourselves hidden. There's a reason why it's designed like this."

With that, Eric and his allies moved to his responsible quarter. They were flying in the air when Eric pointed at the last three rows of the quarters, "From here to here."

Surprisingly, he could give them this much info.

"You have to stay there?"

Eric couldn't answer but his friends didn't need more than that.

"I got it," suddenly Dan said, "We should split up in 3 groups and capture anyone who sneaks around and drags them to a place."

"Dan!" Eric's face lit up, exactly this was what they should do. Since probably only contenders or like Eric, they had allies, roamed around, they could just capture them. If it was a harmless person, they could just set them free.

Eric was glad Dan's thought process was flexible.

"Ok, Dan and Tani take care of XA row, Eclair take care of YA and I'll take care of the last quarters, ZA. Our meeting point's there," Eric pointed at a garden.

"Got it," simultaneously they departed and left for their respective quarters. Eric trusted they could deal with the contenders alone, most probably if anything happened, screams and noises alerted Eric.

Eric hovered above his quarters, there was no one in the air flying with him, and looked down at the ground, there also seemed to be no one.

Eric's bad feeling was reinforced. Was he right to assume he might be the only one in this area? Eric didn't know why he had the thought but as an editor who knew authors, he could say with 100% certainty that authors had only one of the two brain cells. Either they loved to make their MC suffer as much as possible or loved to make it as easy as possible for the MC.

Right now, it seemed like Eric pulled the short straw. The first checkpoint wouldn't be so easy, of course. The readers wanted excitement and not a boring story about how the MC aced through everything. What a fucking bother.

Eric glided to the ground and slowly walked through the streets, there really wasn't a single person present. Not even life was breathed into the houses that were so lively during the day. Eric wasn't a wimp but when it came to such a creepy horror setting like this, you bet he was!

So, yeah, all in all Eric was a wimp. Right now, he was clenching his butt cheeks to pretend to be calm and unfazed being in this hell-like surrounding! His irregular breath was so faint, he could be mistaken as a walking corpse! Come out everyone and first-hand witness this zombie with your own eyes!

A one-in-a-lifetime chance! Like fuck it was! Moving his stiff body, Eric mechanically walked forwards. Although it was silent, the rustles in his ears, like the ocean crashing ashore, was damn loud!

Paranoid, Eric felt something could jump out any second. Look, for example the very small path between these two houses was enough for the grim reaper to suddenly appear and-

THUMP... thump... thump-

Heart... please come back! Please come back! I need you to stay alive!

What the fuck was Eric? A magnet for imagination to become reality? Fuck was it his magic? Wait, Eric had to calm down. It was fine. It was absolutely fine. Ok, sure yeah, there was indeed a grim reaper like a person standing there. No big deal. Eric was fucking OP, something like this was easy peasy right?

Eric closed his eyes and imagined. Yes, he imagined his body was a rocket, teleporting him in an instant to the end of the world. Yes, come on magic work your little magical abilities! Just when Eric felt his feet turn into flames to fuel the rocket, a hand that grabbed his arms almost forced his soul out of his body. Fuck, don't scare me like this! At least say something!

Eric opened his eyes a bit and met death face to face. Dude, fuck you, seriously why the hell do you have to be in such a get-go, huh? Keep up with the fashion trends!

A black cloak like this-

Wait, Eric froze. Black cloak. Wasn't this familiar? Yes, from the attack on the academy! Wow, they were so tenacious? Even following him until here? Knowing this wasn't some supernatural creature, Eric calmed down and said, "I won't give up on the hunt."

Then he pulled on his arm but why was this grip iron-strong? It felt like Mount Dick was trying to cut off his arm by pressing all of this weight on him!

"Dude..." Eric lost patience, especially since he could neither see nor hear the person.

"Stop being so creepy and just say something!"

Dammit! But a second later-

"Wha-'' everything became blurry and Eric felt incredibly dizzy. The next thing he knew was the hard ground coming to embrace him.

***

Sweet, suffocating and warm. These sensations assaulted Eric the second he woke up. His head was hurting and he could barely shake off the sleepiness he had. What was going on? Eric tried to recall his memories. He was in the middle of the checkpoint mission when suddenly a cloaked person attacked him, then he blacked out and... how the fuck did he end up in this soft king-sized bed?

Eric clearly saw it! The blanket, the pillow and the curtains around the bed. Eric clearly felt it! His sore body, the soft mattress and the obvious pair of strong arms that slung around his waist! He also sensed it! The head nestled against his back, the hot breath on his fucking bare upper body and the tingling inside his stomach!

No matter how much Eric wanted turn around and stare the culprit in his face, his body was too weak and this person holding him too strong!

Fuck, where was he? What happened? Eric quickly opened his interface and as expected, he failed the mission! More important was this other box that appeared in his vision!

Bing!

The system brought him terrifying news!

The text box read:

[Points awarded. Please read carefully the distribution. Continuously touching and hugging- 20 P awarded]

Fuck! Did they hug 20 times or did this person touch Eric this fucking many times? Hey, at least, they didn't do it!

Wait. Only now did Eric realise... the system only awarded points for the villain so... this strong person holding him like a lover... FUCK!

WHAT THE HELL WAS WRONG WITH THE VILLAIN? Why the hell was he after Eric's body???